AT&T Uverse / non refundable fee for service

I signed up for U-verse service and because I do not have perfect credit (it actually isn't bad at all) I was asked for $450. I asked the sales rep how long refund of that money would take after the return of the equipment and she said, "That's not a deposit, that is just for us to give you service. That fee is non-refundable."

So I say, they want me to give them $450 for them to give me service and it is not refundable...what that is is extortion!

Comments

The same thing happened to me. The representative told me that I would be buying the equipment. But when I asked her if I get to keep the equipment, she told me no. Then when I asked her if I would still be charged a monthly fee to lease the equipment, she told me yes! So I said, well I'm NOT buying the equipment! You want me to give you $459 to purchase equipment that I have to lease and give back?! RI-DAMN-Diculous! Not to mention, that I've been an ATT customer for 10 years. When I moved 6 months ago, ATT Uverse was not available at my new address. It just became available and now ATT is acting brand new like I wasn't with them for 10 years in the past.

I just moved from Cupertino, California, where I had UVerse service, to Columbus, Indiana, where it has recently become available. When I signed up, I was not told of this "non-refundable credit fee" until AFTER the service was installed. This is consumer fraud. I'm taking it to the authorities, and intend to publicize it.

The letter notifying me of this fee claims that AT&T used "the credit information reported from the agency or agencies listed below, " but there was no agency listed.

Just had the same thing explained to me by ATT Uverse. Not only would I not receive the 150.00 reward points card, I would have to pay a $450.00 NON-REFUNDABLE Fee due to my credit report. I understand deposits, but to charge a person more for a service simply beacuse there credit is not up to par is DISCRIMINATION. I also have 2 land line accounts and my wireless through ATT, but not much longer. I will be filing a formal complaint with the state and any other agency this pertains to. Who knows, maybe a news network might fined this to be an interesting story?

I am facing similiar fee. I have went as far as asking if I could pay for the entire contract in advance. The answer was yes but the fee still applies.. I am tempted to try to get this into litigation as if they are being paid in full for the contract there is no credit being offered.

Same situation for me. Just came here from Australia so I doin't have any U.S. credit history. Only after receiving the first bill do I find out that it is non-refundable. Electricity and gas have both taken a credit fee but it is refundable after a year of on-time payments. I personally can understand a refundable credit fee and was happy to pay those. I assumed that my At&t $250 credit fee was refundable. I've since confirmed it is not. That fee is nothing more than a ripoff!! Leaves a very nasty taste in the mouth. I hate being robbed but being a realist, I'll assume I can do nothing about it!

I hear you brothers...myself (Canadian) recently relocated to Houston, TX for a high paying job in the energy sector. We bought a house, and the previous owners left their U-verse receivers & remotes so we could quickly restore service in our name.

Same story with the non-refundable $450 fee due to a lack of credit history in the US. Needless to say, we returned the U-verse equipment to the previous owners and have gone ahead with Comcast. We are very fiscally responsible with excellent credit in Canada, which made this experience all the more insulting. Unfortunately the US system is built around credit, and in the eyes of AT&T we are degenerates who cannot be trusted and need to pay more. Guilty until proven innocent.

This whole situation smacks of discrimination, and I'd be very interested in hearing from the ACLU or law students on this issue - one of my motivations for posting. Charging a large deposit to persons with an unknown or poor credit is one thing...physically charging more a service is an entirely different matter.

In the meantime, I encourage other expats to vote with their feet and head to the competition (Comcast).

We were going to switch to U Verse since our cable company is dropping some of our favorite channels. My husband called to set things up and was told that there was a $499 non refundable deposit because of his "poor credit rating". His credit rating is WELL OVER 700! How is that poor?! We can qualify to buy another house or for numerous credit cards or loans but his credit isn't good enough for ATT...what a scam! We own our house outright, both cars are completely paid for, we have 1 credit card that is far from maxed out and we haven't had any late payments on any of our bills in years but according to the U Verse people we are a credit risk! I think they are using this story with people just to extort a ridiculous amount of money from people and after reading the numerous Consumer Reports complaints from all over the country about their service, tech support and billing practices I am glad we didn't get their service!

ATT Uverse salesman WILL LIE TO YOU! They are trianed to lie to make a sale and won't hold back. It is a bait and switch tactic. I also made a security deposit that the ATT salesman said over the phone it was 100% refundable after i cancel my service. 4 years later they say otherwise and refuse to disclose the recordings of the telephone sales setup I made. They are allowed to lie over the phone and will just refer you back to the ATT agreement form that was NEVER sent over the mail! AT&T is a CRONY COMPANY W/ BAIT AND SWITCH TACTICS! They are going to pay in the BILLIONS once a class action lawsuit hits them! IF YOU GUYS WERE NOT SUCH COWARDS YOU WOULD GO TO A LAWYERS OFFICE AND THEY WILL BE HUNGRY FOR THIS CASE!

The same thing happened to me in September 2016 when I called to sign up for service. The salesman who I spoke with gave me absolutely no indication of the "perfect credit rating" requirement that I would soon learn about in a follow up email and of the $449 "credit deposit:" that I would be asked to make to complete my order, based on my so-called "low credit rating". I was tunned by what the agent told me and immediately feared that I was the victim of credit fraud. I then checked my credit score with Experian and learned that my credit score was 700. This may not be a perfect score, but it is certainly not indicative of someone who is a credit risk! I was assured by the second customer service agent that this fee would apply to the first several months of billing and so not to worry. I asked her to repeat what she had said that and was assured once again that I was merely paying up front for service and that the $449 would be applied to the forst 3-4 several bills. Well, imagine my surprise when I logged into my AT&T Uverse account for the first time a week after my service was installed and learned that there was an additional $268 due to cover the $717.33 "New Charges" (of which $449 had been paid and denoted as (CR). Looking back, my mistake was in not canceling right away as soon as I was told that I was a credit risk. That was the red flag that, and I now have serious regrets for signing up with AT&T. I am thinking about canceling my entire package but fear, after reading the previous posts, that I will be told that what I have paid is nonrefundable. What a mess. I have lived in 4 different cities and ordered service from numerous companies over the years and never encountered anything quite like this. I strongly advise others to consider alternative options for their cable provider. AT&T is executing bait and switch tactics, and it will not surprise me if I learn one day in the future that they have faced a class action lawsuit. This is exactly the sort of things companies eventually get sued for!

The AT&T, as often stated by them, $449 refundable deposit is something your have to fight for. You must submit written notice of Dispute, written notice for AT&T to pay in advance for arbitration (or pay the $200 yourself) and file a case with the American Arbitration Association.
Snipits of their guidelines are attached.